February 17 - At this morning's session,
the Board of Fire Commissioners made final arrangements for the shifting of
the men who were temporarily assigned to Pan-American work to their former
places. About 26 men, including captains, lieutenants and firemen, were changed
about and now all the men are back in their old places.

February 19 - It is announced that the
sale of the Pan-American Exposition buildings will be consummated tomorrow
and the title in them be passed to Frank Harris, treasurer of the Chicago
House Wrecking Company for $80,000. Mr. Harris arrived at the Iroquois Hotel
Sunday night and has had several conferences with Robert F. Schelling concerning
the sale. Mr. Harris is said to have made arrangements for the work of wrecking
to go forward promptly.

The announcement that the sale is about completed
follows close upon the heels of a resolution passed by the Park Board last
week wherein it is declared that unless the Pan-American Exposition Company
and the United States Government show they have a contract for the removal
of their buildings by the middle of April, the Park Board will then proceed
to do the work. The United States Government is included in the resolution
on account of the United States Life-Saving building on Park Lake. The Exposition
Company has only the Directors' Log Cabin, the Fine Arts building and some
gates and fence and a few groups of plaster statuary on park territory. It
is altogether probable that the wrecking company will begin dismantling operations
in this quarter. The Fine Arts Academy [sic] is built of brick and will afford
handsome salvage. As the restoration of the surface to its original condition,
that will probably be left to the Park Board as the Exposition Company has
no money with which to pay for the work, and the Chicago House Wrecking Company
merely contracts to remove all material in the buildings that has a commercial
value.

February 24 - It is now thought it will
be April or May before the Buffalo Historical Society will be able to have
it new building dedicated. Mr. Frank H. Severance, secretary of the society,
made that announcement this morning. The reasons for the delay are many and
not the least important of them is the alterations being made in the structure
so it will be more suitable for the new uses to which it is to be put. The
Lincoln Memorial Association, and possibly other organizations, will join
in the dedicatory exercises. The bronze statue of Lincoln now in the building
is to be unveiled.

Between now and the day of the dedication the
society intends to swell its membership. This, in a way, is necessary to carry
out the plans of the organization. The city will contribute enough money to
maintain the building, but the society has been put to much expense recently
and its income is at low tide. To carry on its work of historical research,
publication, lectures and entertainments, money is needed and this, it is
hoped, will be secured through increasing the membership.

A circular letter has been sent out to members
and friends of the society by the Board of Managers setting forth tghe situation
and stating the needs. The letter states that the building in the possession
of the Historical Society is with one exception the finest of its kind in
the United States. A statement of the scope of the society is given and the
results obtained are also referred to in a general way, showing the desirability
of maintaining the society and enlarging the work in hand. It is stated that
the expense incident to installing the possessions of the society in the new
building will deplete the treasury, which has never carried a very large balance,
receiving only a small amount from the city for current maintenance.

An earnest appeal is made to residents of Buffalo
who, it is believed, are in sympathy with the work and aims of the society,
urging them to become members at the regular rate of $5 a year, or better
still become life members by the payment of the sum of $100. Persons who contribute
2500 or more are made patrons of the society. Enough interest, it is thought,
will be awakened in the society to insure sufficient funds for carrying on
the work proposed.

February 26 - Frank Harris of the Chicago
Wrecking Company today will shake the dust, or rather the snow and mud, of
Buffalo off his feet and return to Chicago. He is disgusted clean through
with the difficulties and delays which have arisen over the deal for the sale
of the Pan-American Exposition Company. After spending a good part of the
winter in Buffalod trying to secure possession of the buildings for his company
which bid $80,000 and was awarded the structures he finds at the end that
he is not much nearer accomplishing what he sought than he was at the beginning.

"I shall leave Buffalo today," said
Mr. Harris this morning, "and I shall not return on this business unless
I have positive assurances that all bar to the delivery of the buildings which
we have bought has been removed. I shall certainly spend no more time in this
city dickering over the matter."

It was supposed that this last effort to reach
a settlement would be successful. So, at 10 o'clock yesterday morning Mr.
Harris, in company with his attorney Alfred W. Gray of Niagara Falls, went
to the office of Robert F. Schelling of the law committee of the Exposition
Company to wind matters up. They remained in session all day, and in the evening
Mr. Harris telegraphed the result of the conference to his company in Chicago.
The reply was to cease negotiations and return to Chicago.

"All of the lienors except two or three
agreed to relinquish their claims so that there could be a realization on
the assets of the Exposition Company," said Mr. Harris. "But among
these few were the Rumseys who would not sign. We have decided to spend no
more time over the matter. Some time these Buffalo people who are standing
in the way of the accomplishment of this sale will come to terms.

"I shall stay in town for a short time
today to get back the $25,000 which we put up as a guarantee for the good
faith of our bid for the buildings."

Attorney Gray said that he did not anticipate
any trouble in getting the money back although, he said, there might be some
effort on the part of the Exposition Company to obtain more time for the delivery
of the property.

February 26 - Interest in the Pan-American
is reviving. Hundreds of visitors now wander about the grounds daily, photographing
the buildings and various points of interest, for the orbitrary rule of the
official photographer is over. Yesterday afternoon there were fully a hundred
persons paying what appeared to be farewell visits to the scenes of so many
historic events last summer. There has been no attempt made to clear off the
walks of the Rainbow City and walking conditions are not ideal. Still, there
are footpaths tramped through the snowy landscape and it is possible to reach
any of the most prominent points inside the fence without doing much wading.
The result is worth the effort, for the Exposition in winter decorations of
snow and ice is very beautiful.

There is not enough of the Midway left to tell
where it was. When the snow melts, the course of the asphalt pavement will
define the direction of the erstwhile "Lane of Laughter," but the
gaudy and fantastic structures are gone with the voices of the spielers. The
building that contained the infanct incubators and the village of Darkest
Africa are the only structures left of the former mile of folly.

The Exposition buildings have retained much
of the original color scheme, but it looks like a negligee shirt after its
fourth trip to the laundry. The colors have been faded by storms and smirched
with smoke from neighboring factory chimneys. To contemplate them now would
be a source of pain to C. Y. Turner, the former director of color. The only
place whre the original richness of coloring is preserved is in the cornices
of the several buildings. There it remains as vivid-hued as Easter eggs.

If Karl Bitter, the Director of Sculpture,
and Karl Bell, the superintendent of the same department, were on the grounds
yesterday they would miss most of the 700 pieces of statuary with which they
adorned the grounds. Every figure that could be reached without a ladder or
moved without the use of a derrick has been carried off. One figure in the
West Esplanade that evidently resisted the effort to wrench it from its pedestal,
was partly sawed off at the neck. Some vandal was apparently determined to
get at least the head and was balked by the law, encountering a nail. The
statuary was offered for sale and most of it was bought and removed before
the Sheriff took possession of the grounds last fall. The big groups still
remain, including those about the "Fountain of Abundance," the "Fountain
of Nature," the "Fountain of Man." Many of the figures are
marred, however, showing the hand of the ever-present individual who wishes
to destroy what he cannot steal.

The State and foreign section of the grounds
is almost as much obliterated as the Midway. Only a few buildings are left,
and they will be razed as soon as the snow leaves the grounds. Those who wish
to get a last glimpse of the Exposition in the semblance of its entirety and
before it is obliterated by the wreckers will do well to bear in mind the
injuction of the spielers, "You'll have to hurry!"

February 28 - John G. Milburn, president
of the Pan-American Exposition Company, had his attention invited this morning
to an article in the Enquirer in which it is stated that he and Senator Marcus
A. Hanna had charge of the matter of payment of the bills of the physicians
who attended the late President McKinley: that the physicians were "put
out" because Dr. Matthew D. Mann was to obtain the largest fee; and that
the rate of compensation agreed upon to be presented in a bill to Congress
was as follows:

Mr. Milburn read the article carefully, then
with much deliberation wrote the following statement:

"There is no basis whatever for the statement
that the bills for the services of the doctors who attended the late President
were referred to Senator Hanna and myself; that any bills rendered had been
revised or cut down; or that I have anything to do with the preparation of
any bill to be submitted to Congress. Some time ago I was requested to confer
with the doctors about their compensation. No bills have been rendered by
them. We met and talked the matter over. There has been no controversy between
the doctors themselves or between me and any of them. As a result of our talk
certain figures were made which were agreed on all around and impressed me
as very reasonable, and those figures I sent to Washington, wihch is the last
I have heard of the matter.

"It is unjust to the doctors to represent
them as having rendered bills which were cut down, or as having asked for
compensation which was not allowed, or as differing between themselves.

"I am not at liberty to give the figures
which I sent to Washington. Those which are given in the Enquirer are not
correct. That is all I can say."